Theatre and Culture from Scotland, starring The List's Theatre Editor, his performance persona and occasional guest stars. Experimental writings, cod-academic critiques and all his opinions, stolen or original.

Monday, 5 June 2017

The Delights of Dramaturgy: Rosalind Blessed @ Edfringe 2017

Rosalind
Blessed

presents:

The
Delights of Dogs and the Problems of People

Space
Triplex Studios I 4 – 26 August

The
Delights of Dogs and the Problems of People is
a harrowing and darkly funny exploration of the path to
domestic abuse, exposing the delicacy of relationship dynamics and
blame. Drawing from personal experience, it is written by and
starringRosalind
Blessed in her first full length play. Directed by Caroline Devlin.

The
play sharply observes the torture of human-to-human love and
the unconditional nature of dog-to-human love and loyalty. Taking both visceral and comedic approaches to
storytelling, the play tackles the real inner workings of a
rotting relationship, the obsessiveness of love and the horror it can
inflict on two people who think they just want to be together.

The inspiration for this
performance was to share some of my personal experiences from
unhealthy and abusive relationships, to act as a warning. I wanted to
say that it is very easy to find yourself in a dangerous situation –
that you are not stupid and that you are not alone. I didn’t want
to portray victim and villain but vulnerable and faulted humans.

I
also wanted to advocate for rescue dogs, particularly the
Staffordshire Bull Terrier, who are very often treated cruelly by
humans and demonised in the press. The cages of my local rescue
centre are filled with Staffs. The empathy I have received from them
over the years has helped me through my darkest human times. I am not
overstating to say the love of my dogs has been a literal life saver.

I hadn’t realised quite how much
dialogue would be opened up by this piece until it’s run at The
Courtyard Theatre. After each performance people would feel empowered
to tell me their life experiences afterwards. The problems are so
much more widespread than I had realised.

I suppose we tend to keep
these experiences of abuse to ourselves as there is such a feeling of
residual shame. The beauty of the level of immersion in watching an
intimate play like this is that it unlocked that isolation. Watching
an honest piece clearly made the audience feel less alone and able to
talk.

Some found it so close to home that they found it difficult to
sit through, which made me sad but afterwards the general feeling was
that if punches had been pulled that it would be doing all of us who
had experienced these things a disservice.

It also proved useful for
a lovely woman in the legal system who works with abusers. There is
some possibility of taking the show to prisons – the idea being if
abusers could see their actions at a remove that they might be able
to get past their denial.

To be honest the approach to the
creation of the play was a great deal of trial and error. It was
developed over a few years working with several very talented actors.

It started as an idea for a 5 minute short play about a woman
eulogising next to a small grave – the assumption being she is
talking about her child, then it is revealed she is talking about her
dog. This then became extended into a one act play about the sadness
of a relationship ending which finally grew to the darker full length
piece it is now.

I had several small runs in London which I directed
myself and I learned a huge amount from my actors and audience about
what was reaching out.

When the play reached its final form I
stepped down as director and played the female part myself as the
subject matter was so incredibly close to me. I was always fluid to
suggestions from my casts to change and improve as we worked. I’m
sure that will happen again over this rehearsal period….it’s
never finished!

4. All my productions use humour to
deal with pretty grim subject matter. I think you have a better
chance of reaching a person if you allow them to have a giggle at the
mistakes that we make. I certainly tend to switch off a bit if things
are too earnest so I attempt to maintain an irreverent tone in all.

There is quite a bit of direct audience connection / participation in
my work. In the past the audience have been fed and even given vodka
jelly shots! In this slightly more serious piece the audience are
still directly addressed and one of the actors actually becomes the
dog so you can pet him!

This inclusion hopefully makes the audience
at times feel like friend and confidant and sometimes guilty voyeur.

5. I hope the audience will experience
laughter, sadness, horror and anger but ultimately leave uplifted. I
hope they will feel a sense of camaraderie with both the actors and
fellow audience members as they go on this challenging journey.

6. I think honesty is the best policy.
I think if you are as honest as you can be with your production the
more likely the audience will trust you with their response. I also
hope that the humour and quirky structure and approach will keep
everyone engaged as we ask them to look at some pretty challenging
stuff.

The
stark honesty of Blessed’s writing creates material that is
both funny and discomforting, as the play flits between the
present and the past. In this two-hander, one of the actors
doubles as the dog, juxtaposing the human-to-human and human-to-dog
relationships and ultimately highlighting the sinister potential of
human behaviour.

"I
have experienced several abusive relationships and found it difficult
to forgive myself for allowing that to happen. Exploring the two
characters in this story enabled me to better understand how easy it
is for things to go badly wrong for both parties - to slip into
abuser and abused without even realising it. It is a widespread
problem and I wanted people to know that they are not weak or stupid
or wrong or evil. And most of all that they are not alone.”

RosalindBlessed.

“The
play of the year for me was The Delights of Dogs and the Problems of
People – funny, moving, insightful, and ridiculously well acted. In
an orderly world it would run for a 100 years.RosalindBlessed
and Duncan Wilkins will break your heart whilst making you think,
which is the hallmark of a great drama. Definitely the play to see at
this year’s festival fringe.”

Andrew
O’Hagan, New York Times

Space
Triples Studios

19
Hill Place EH8 9DP

Box
office 0131 510 2395

Previews
Aug 4-5 £6

August
7-12 4pm; 14-19 12.30pm; 21-26 4pm

All
other shows £10/£8

75
minutes

RosalindBlessed

Blessed
trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Roles include,
Henrietta in The
Hollow (Mill
at Sonning), Gonoril in King
Lear (Guildford
Shakespeare) with her father in the title role, Emilia in Othello,
Wife of Bath in Canterbury
Tales,
(Southwark Playhouse) Tamora in Titus
Andronicus (Arcola)
Molly Brown in Iceburg
Right Ahead (The
Gatehouse), Sylvia Plath in Letters
Home (New
End Theatre)

As
a writerRosalind
has written with many sketch shows but most notably many years of Fat
Hammond’s Bango Lounge,
which went to the fringe twice. She co-wrote Wedded
Bliss and Wedded
Bliss – Through Therapy (Lion
and Unicorn). She wrote two one act plays Smothy and Lottie (The
Etcetera Theatre). The
Delights of Dogs and The Problems of People is
her first full length play. She is working on the next, a play
examining mental health issues called Just
Sick.

Trained:
Drama Centre London, has been a professional actress for 21 years and
latterly a Director also.For
The Guildford Shakespeare Company: A
Winters Tale, (2016) King
Lear (2015), Othello (2014), Macbeth
(2013), The
Merry Wives of Windsor (The
Public Reviews pick of 2012) and Richard
III in (2012), Hamlet in
(2011). For Creation Theatre Company, Oxford: Jekyll
and Hyde (2012),
Kean Productions: In
Extremis (2012)
and R-3 with
her own company, Centre Five Productions, (Off West End Award
nomination for Best Director). Caroline is excited to be returning to
Edinburgh, her last production being Eunuchs
in my Wardrobe written
by and starring Silas Carson in 2011. Caroline is currently writing
her third play, which will be produced by the Guildford Shakespeare
Company in Autumn 2017.

Absurd opinions, extended reviews, random press releases from The Arts, half baked ideas, unsuccessful experiments with the format of criticism. Brought to you by the host of The Vile Arts Radio Hour and former Theatre Editor of The Skinny, now working with The List